about JFKs clock repair business and background

ABOUT JOHN F. KURDZIONAK and his clock repair business

I have been around the clock and watch business all my life. My Father began repairing watches and clocks as a hobby in the 1960s, and by the time I was born in 1971, he was operating a small watch and clock repair shop in our basement. My first words were "tick tock", and before I was 10 years old, my father had taught me how to take apart watches and clocks and put them back together.

My father's "basement" clock and watch repair business grew so much, that in 1981 he left his full time job as a high school science teacher in the Medford, MA school system, and began repairing watches and clocks full-time in our home for several Boston-area jewelry stores and private clientele. In the 1980s, I spent countless hours in that shop, watching him and helping him.

In 1987 my parents moved the watch repair business out of our home, and opened a small retail watch and clock repair shop, The Watchmaker.

I graduated from Stoneham (Mass.) High School in 1989, two years after figure skater Nancy Kerrigan did so.

I have a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management (1989-1993) from Merrimack College in North Andover, MA.

August, 1996: John F. Kurdzionak about to run a Cog Railway locomotive to the summit of Mt. Washington, NH.

While in my last year of college I went to work as a brakeman on the mountain-climbing trains and steam locomotives of the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire. It was full-time summer work when I was in college, but as the years passed I worked there part time, as my schedule allowed.

If you rode the Mt. Washington Cog Railway at any time between June of 1992 and July of 2001, I may have been your brakeman, fireman, or engineer.

After my college graduation in '93, my parents hired me to repair all the clocks that came into The Watchmaker.

A young John Kurdzionak, Circa 1993, reassembling a Chelsea clock after repairing it.

During the 1990s, I repaired hundreds of clocks. I also attended several advanced clockmaking courses, including: gear and pinion cutting, and escapement making and repair. I even traveled to Grenchen, Switzerland on two occasions (1997, 1998) and studied watch repair. After some (but very little) thought, I decided that not only did I prefer repairing cuckoo clocks and grandfather clocks to repairing small Swiss watches, but also that the public needed me as a cuckoo and grandfather clock repairman much more than it needed me as a watch repairman!

By the late 1990s, substantial numbers of people were calling me from all over the USA for cuckoo clock repair. Thus began my nationwide "mail order" cuckoo clock repair business. In 1998, I rented dedicated commercial space in Stoneham, MA to handle the number of cuckoo clocks that I was being asked to repair.

I outgrew this location quickly. In 2005, a large commercial room in Cummings Park in Woburn Massachusetts was leased.

In the spring of 2008 JFK Clock Repair became an Official USA Service Center for Hones Cuckoo Clocks upon a personal request from the manager Hoenes (I know him of course; I visited his cuckoo clock factory back in the 1990s).

By 2009, in addition to my "walk-in" Boston-area customers, customers from all fifty states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Japan, Panama, Ireland, England, Germany, and China had sent me their clocks for repair.

In May 2017, JFK Clock Repair moved from Cummings Park in Woburn, to the Cummings Center in Beverly. The Cummings Center is the former world headquarters of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, a company that made shoe-making machinery for decades. When visiting the Cummings Center for the first time, it can be a little overwhelming due to the size of the complex. But finding JFK Clock is not difficult. JFK's new location is on the first floor of the #100 Cummings Center building. This is the building that is furthest to the right, when you enter the property; and, it's the building that is adjacent to the MBTA Commuter Rail train tracks. JFK is at the very back of this building, on the first floor, in Suite 159-D. Please call or email, for specific directions on how to find our suite quickly.

Effective 2021, JFK Clock is open by appointment only. Please call (978) 922-4400, or email jfkclock@verizon.net.

J.F.K. offers its customers...

An extensive parts and movement inventory, carrying genuine factory-made parts for most type of modern cuckoo, grandfather, wall, shelf, bracket, and mantel clock.
Clock repair "full-time, all the time". It's not a sideline, it's not a hobby, and it's not a part-time avocation after a week at the office. It's a career. My first words were "tick-tock", and I've literally been "at it" ever since.
A commercial location. My business does not operate out of a "P.O. Box"; it is not located at my residence; and it is not a "phantom" shop in cyberspace.
Insured and alarmed repair facilities.
A shipping/receiving department, for receiving clocks from, and shipping clocks to, customers all across the USA.
A 2-year guarantee on repairs, which covers parts and labor.

A lifetime in the business and quality, no-nonsense service that's done right the first time are what I offer to you. If you have any questions, or if what you're looking for is not here, please call, fax, or e-mail me, and I'd be happy to answer your inquiry. Please see my Contact Page for phone numbers and email address.

Thank you very much for finding this web page, and for taking the time to read it.

-- John F. Kurdzionak

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